Smart Jocks: UGA Football Lands Academic-Minded Athletes

As the ink dries on Signing Day 2009, college football experts and fans alike settle down to evaluate the successes and failures of the recruiting season.

UGA had all their commits sign as promised but lost nearly all their holdouts.

It will be a thrill to watch Aaron Murray, Marlon Brown, Brandon Smith et al, and a shame to see the missed opportunity with Greg Reid (hell, at least Reid had the foresight to ditch Florida and pick non-threat Florida State).

No recruit is as exciting to see don the Red and Black as offensive guard Chris Burnette.

Troup County High School signee Burnette brings aggressive blocking, strong technical skills, and a 5.012 GPA to the UGA African-language Athletic Division.* Burnette is a candidate for his graduating class’s valedictorian.

Athletic skill is one thing, but a sharp intellect is even better between the hedges. To have a Bulldog not named Stinchcomb with academic promise gives the injury-and-punishment-ridden Bulldogs that ever-needed ingredient: intelligence. It's the same reason why players like Matt Ryan are successful.

Recently, pre-med student-athlete Myron Rolle of the Florida State Seminoles was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. His teammates ragged on him constantly, but "whenever there is a debate that goes on in the locker room about whether tomatoes are really red or whether there's a country in North Africa named Algeria, they'll ask [Myron].

"They don't go to Google, they go to Myron."

When conventional wisdom says athletes are not as smart as the general student body, players like Rolle and Burnette are subverting the paradigm. Consider the positive impact a nerdy teammate could have on the often-thuggish Bulldogs. With his influence, study hours could turn into exercising the crucial muscle—you know that lump three feet above your ass. It’s about time the Bulldogs seek intelligence and reject investing in ignorance.

*Referring to the large number of football players who enroll in the Swahili, Yuroba, and Zulu languages offered at UGA.